Helmar Stamp Actresses (T332)

Issuing Company: American Tobacco Company
Country of Issue: USA
Year of Issue: 1911
Color/B&W: Color
Number of Cards in Set: 56?
Card Size: 1 1/8" x 1 7/16"
Issued as insert with what product: Cigarettes

Notes: Checklist incomplete. Unnumbered. Blank-backed. These are very small cards on thin paper, resembling postage stamps. They do not have sticky backs like postage stamps. They do not have the Helmar name on them anywhere. When issued, they came in a small glassine envelope with the Helmar name on it. These envelopes are often found with the cards. The American Card Catalog number for this set is T332. Under the T332 listing, there are both actresses and baseball players. There are 56 different actress stamps identified so far and 180 different baseball players. The checklist presented here will be only for the actresses. According to the American Card Catalog, when these were issued "small envelopes contained 4 or 5 each of postage stamps and poster stamps."

There are 15 different background designs used on the actress cards. Most of the actresses have been seen with multiple background designs, with as many as three designs seen for the same actress. It is likely that all of the actresses can be found with three different border designs.

In a group of these that I acquired, there were some postage stamps included. These were most certainly postage stamps that were included when these actress stamps were issued. The postage stamps were all foreign and were all postmarked. They included stamps from France, The Netherlands, Germany, Belgium, a country in the Orient, and others. Probably stamps from many more countries were used. One stamp has a postmark of 1897 and another is postmarked from 1900.

According to the Internet Movie Database, there is a 1902 film still in existence with Anna Held in it at the Library of Congress.


Lina Abarbanell
Margaret Anglin
Nora Bayes
Amelia Bingham
Bille Burke
Mabel Cameron
Emma Carus
Marguerite Clark
Bessie Clifford
Nanette Comstock
Henrietta Crossman
Margaret Dale
Violet Dale
May De Sousa
Marie Doro
Alice Dovey
Louise Dressler
Marie Dressler
Minnie Dupree
Maxine Elliott
Elsie Ferguson
Grace Filkins
Bertha Galland
Viola Gillette
Ethel Green
Leonore Harris
Anna Held
Lillian Herlein
Gertrude Hoffman
Dorothy Jordan
Doris Keane
Hazel Kirke
Maud Lambert
Rose La Harte
Grace La Rue
Ada Lewis
Clara Lipman
Bessie McCoy
Irene Moore
Olga Nethersole
Flora Parker
Ruth Pecan
Blanche Ring
Adele Ritchie
Elsa Ryan
Mary Ryan
Julia Sanderson
Blossom Seeley
Edna May Spooner
Margaret Sylvia
Laurette Taylor
Fanchon H. Thompson
Grace Von Studdiford
Blanche Walsh
Helen Ware
Flora Zabell


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